Leonard Ravenhill emphasizes the importance of recognizing God's sovereignty over human self-sufficiency, contrasting the arrogance of man as the master of his fate with the humility required to submit to God. He critiques the reliance on human philosophies and the neglect of spiritual truths, urging believers to acknowledge the resurrection of Jesus Christ as the cornerstone of faith. Ravenhill warns against the moral decay in society, highlighting the need for revival as the only hope for America, and calls for a deeper spiritual burden among Christians to seek God's intervention.

This is what he says, Out of the night that troubles me, Black as the pits from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods there be, For my unconquerable soul. It matters not how straight the gate, How punishment the sco- No, let me go on to the next verse. Out of the night that troubles me, Black as the pits from pole to pole, I thank whatever gods there be, For my unconquerable soul. In the fell clutch of circumstance, I have not winced or cried aloud. Under the bludgeoning of chance, My head is bloody but unvowed. That's a Lost Quotid poem, I think, phrase in all his poems. Looms but the horror of the shade, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. Beyond this place of wrath and tears, Looms but the horror of the shade, Or the grave he means, And yet the menace of the years Finds and shall find me unafraid. Now listen to his arrogance. It matters not how straight the gate, How charged with punishment the skull, I'm the master of my fate, I'm the captain of my soul. Exactly, go to hell. You're the master of your fate. You refuse to bow to God, The laws of God, The word of God, The Son of God, The Spirit of God. You refuse the blood of the Lamb, Well, go to the wrath of the Lamb. That's the only alternative, For him or this generation. After him comes H. E. Swinburne. Remember his famous phrase, Glory to man in the highest, For man is the master of things. He says, From too much love of living, From hope and fear set free, We thank thee with brief thanksgiving, Whatever gods may be, That no life lives forever, The dead man rise up never, And even the weariest river, Wind somewhere to the sea. Now Paul, in the 17th of the Acts here, Marches with his head unbowed, Marches with a holy confidence, Into the midst of the most intellectual Group of people in the world in that time. This 17th chapter says, The Stoics were there, And the Epicureans, And the poets, And all the rest of them. And Paul goes in the midst of these people, Stoics, Epicureans, Their great leaning was on The natural, primal facility of man, Or faculty of man, On individual self-sufficiency. But all he could see, When he went into that city, He said his spirit was stirred When he saw, Amidst all that massive intelligence, They bowed down to the gods of stone, And they sought for the unknown God. He walks into the midst of them With all their philosophies, And all their reasonings, And everything else. And they listened intently, When they found he knew As much philosophy as they knew, As much poetry as they knew, As much history as they knew. But then suddenly he comes out With something they never heard of. He talks about a man called Jesus Christ, Who died and rose again from the dead. What did they do? He says, I passed by and I saw your devotions, And I found an altar with this inscription, To an unknown God, Whom therefore ye ignorantly worship, Him I declare unto you. God hath made the world, And all things therein, Seeing that he is Lord of heaven. They wouldn't accept that very well. He is the Lord of heaven and earth, And he dwelleth not in temples with hands. All these temples you have Down the side of the road, The investment of millions of dollars, All your philosophies, All your writings, They're nothing to him. He is the one God, He is the creator of heaven and earth. He dwelleth not in temples made with hands, Nor is he worshipped with men's hands, As though he had need of anything. Then he winds it up, Verse thirty-one, Because he hath appointed a day, In the which he will judge the world in righteousness, By that man whom he hath ordained. He hath ordained whereof, He hath given assurance to all men, That he hath raised him from the dead. The message of the New Testament Was not the death of Jesus Christ. That was only half of it. They could understand men who died as martyrs. What they did not understand Was the resurrection of Jesus. That by one man's sin, Disobedience, Sin entered into the world And polluted the whole human race. This debate has been a bit interesting, Not too much this week. I'm glad somebody really pulled one of the speakers up, Was it last night, And said when they said about the abortion, This is a very emotional issue. Was that Fierce Ferraro that said that? This is a very, It's not an emotional issue, It's a moral issue. And it's a spiritual issue. Oh, we don't want a nuclear war. That would destroy a lot of our young people. Oh, doesn't that, A lot of our people, Doesn't that sound very holy and compassionate? They don't want young men to go to war, They want to murder them in the womb. Which is the worst. We should take care of our young people For the next generation. There won't be any young people in the next generation. Their womb is their tomb. Is God going to wing it out iniquity much longer? If I were a Protestant Pope, I would close every evangelical church In America or the world. Until after the election. Not that we can buy it by our supplications and devotion, But at least let's get serious. There's more talk about the World Series this week Than about what's coming up on to the nation. There's more interest in football, Now we're in the football season. I don't believe we've ever as a nation Been in a more serious situation than we're in tonight. Mondale would have backed the philosophy, And Ferraro too. They'd have backed the philosophy of these men there, These Epicureans and these Stoics. These men who want to rationalize everything And reason everything out. Our only hope is God. Revival is not the best thing that can come to America To save it, it's the only thing. And you can't start it in Washington. If you could, I'd be up there right now. You know, I think one of the horrors, If I can use that, When we get to eternity, And we see the winding path From the throne of Jesus Christ Right back to the moment you were born again, And you see how near you came to supreme blessing And supreme deliverance and revival. And we missed it by a hair's breadth almost. I think that will be one of the sorrows. No sorrow in heaven, of course. It's all joy and peace. We go to funerals and say, No more tears. But the same book that says that, The same book, Revelation, says, God shall wipe away all tears. So where does he wipe them from? I consider it the judgment seat. No, the judgment is only for rewards. No, that's what Paul says. Paul says in 1 Corinthians 3 there, We shall suffer loss. You don't usually laugh if you suffer loss. When we look back and see the turn in the road, The wrong choices we made, We didn't wait on God enough. We didn't obey him enough. I wonder what kind of compassion, No, I don't. I think if Paul came back today, He'd look generally over the church and say, You know what I do? I don't sleep much at night. I don't eat much. My whole spirit is groaning. I travel. The man that honors me, Too many come to my door almost, But the man that honors me, Is the man that honors me with his burdens. I've not come for money. I've got such a burden. I've got such a concern. I'm in such agony. I'm in this, that. So what? What if God himself puts a burden on us? Do you know one sign of spirituality Is when you ask God to give you a burden Nobody else wants to carry? I know she didn't say amen, But it's true anyhow.